News of and reflections on good health, natural living and a great green world.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

I'LL TAKE THE FLAVORS, NOT THE MEAT, THANK YOU

I might be an anomaly. I’m a vegetarian who seeks out meat recipes. Selectively, yes.. but why?

It’s all about taste. I am lured by the seductive taste and smell - not of the meat (or chicken or seafood) itself, but the techniques of cooking and the fabulous sauces I discover. However I get there, I want to share the tagines, curries, and chilis, the foods of every continent and cuisine. I want to do it without the lamb, chicken or beef.

It’s all about nutrition. We eat to live, we live to eat, and both must be considered. Sometimes all I have to do is take out the meat, and there’s still a meal in the works. I like to look at the balance of everything that goes with the meal so that all the parts leave me well fed.

It’s all about satisfaction. More than a full feeling, I love to have the pleasure of the aftertaste. I like my house to hold on to the scent of spices, or the chemistry of the sauce in a frying pan or oven. Sometimes, there’s the satisfaction that I have been able to recreate a recipe to my own needs and still retain the clarity and purpose of the original.

Some of my favorites from The Perfect Pantry are the ones I’ve redirected for my vegetarian meals: Southwestern Beef Brisket and Nasi Goreng are two that I enjoy with only a little shift of ingredients. Then there’s Floribean Chicken Chili: first I omitted the chicken, since both beans and (vegetarian) sausage were enough for me. I wanted to taste those Florida-Caribbean flavors! Delicious, but I kept experimenting… if you’d like to see how it is now, here’s the adapted, still evolving, recipe.

About Me

In 1981 my husband Jay and I came to NH with our four children, to own and run a small natural food store, Foodstuffs. This led to a restaurant (Butternuts); a subsequent store, The Vitality Shop, finally, VitaSource; and other related endeavors. 30 years later the children were grown, the business was even smaller and more focused on supplements, herbs, body care and teas. I have spent a lot of time learning about health and nutrition. Now it's time to find a way to bring you more of the latest (and oldest) of this information.
May 2010, we sold the business and retired. Time to see things at a distance.